Buckley Sells in Syracuse

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*Two station sales lead our NEW
YORK news, beginning in Syracuse, where Buckley Broadcasting
is exiting the market with the sale of its classic hits pair
WSEN-FM (92.1 Baldwinsville)/WSEN (1050 Baldwinsville) and oldies
WFBL (1390 Baldwinsville). While rumors about the impending sale
of the stations had been swirling for a few months, the identity
of the buyer came as a surprise: it's James Johnson's Leatherstocking
Media Group, which just closed on nearby WMCR/WMCR-FM (1600/106.3
Oneida).

Leatherstocking
will take over operation of WSEN/WFBL under an LMA on September
1; the transaction hasn't yet been filed with the FCC, so we
don't yet have a purchase price to report.

The addition of WSEN/WFBL to the Leatherstocking group puts
Johnson into some stiff competition - unlike Oneida, where WMCR
pretty much has rural Madison County to itself, the Syracuse
stations face off against national players Clear Channel and
Citadel, as well as two other local players, Ed Levine's Galaxy
cluster and Craig Fox's stations.

Speaking of Fox, he quietly flipped formats on his latest
acquisition a couple of weeks ago: WVOA (105.1 DeRuyter) is now
carrying Radio Disney, also heard on Fox's WOLF (1490 Syracuse)/WWLF
(1340 Auburn)/WAMF (1300 Fulton). The "Love Radio"
religious/ethnic programming that's been heard on 105.1 in two
incarnations is again being heard exclusively on WVOU (103.9
Mexico).

Downstate, we knew Jarad Broadcasting was selling WBON (98.5
Westhampton) to a new company called JVC Broadcasting, helmed
by Jarad president John Caracciolo and programmer Vic "Latino"
Canales - but now the sale has been reworked to include WDRE
(105.3 Calverton-Roanoke) as well, for a total price of $2.7
million, $1 million for "La Nueva Fiesta 98.5" and
$1.7 million for "Party 105.3."

There's
just one more station left to move into CBS Radio's new cluster
studio at 345 Hudson Street in lower Manhattan, now that WINS
(1010 New York) has made the move.

The switchover last Friday (Aug. 21) at noon came with a few
technical hitches - the first few attempts to bring in traffic
and weather reports were met with dead air, and the familiar
teletype ticker that was heard behind the anchors at 888 Seventh
Ave. was missing in the new location - but for the station's
first studio move in more than a quarter-century, it went about
as well as could have been expected.

(And thanks to fill-in WINS anchor Ted David for the pictures
here, which we've shamelessly copied from his postings to Allan
Sniffen's NY Radio Message Board...)

The
last space at 345 Hudson Street to be filled will be sports radio
WFAN (660), slated to make its move from the fabled dank basement
in Astoria, Queens on or about September 2; after that, only
WCBS (880) will be located elsewhere, and plans to move it downtown
from the eighth floor of the Broadcast Center on W. 57th Street
in 2010 are still somewhat uncertain.

Across town at Citadel's WABC (770 New York), the venerable
Bob Grant is back again, this time in a Sunday slot from noon-2
PM, starting Sept. 13. Grant, 80, has been heard (and seen) lately
on internet talker UbaTV.com.

Back upstate, EMF Broadcasting told neighbors in the town
of Floyd, near Utica, that it's considering moving the antenna
of WOKR (93.5 Remsen) to alleviate complaints of health problems
that started back in the spring when the God's Country affiliate
moved to its current transmitter site. While EMF insists that
its operation in Floyd is within legal RF safety standards, officials
from the company attending a town hall meeting last week with
congressman Michael Arcuri apologized for the problems the station
was apparently causing - and they say they're looking into raising
the antenna or moving the station to a different site.

A bit of minor-league hockey news: when the former Philadelphia
Phantoms of the American Hockey League move to Glens Falls as
the Adirondack Phantoms this fall, their games will be heard
on Pamal's WNYQ (101.7 Hudson Falls). Q101.7 signed a three-year
deal to carry the broadcasts, with Owen Newkirk behind the mike.

On the TV side of things, Albany's WNYT (Channel 13) is losing
its news director. Paul Lewis is returning to Connecticut, where
he was news director at Fox affiliate WTIC-TV (Channel 61) until
moving to Albany in 2006, to pursue a graduate degree in interactive
communications.

THE 2010 CALENDAR
IS ALMOST HERE!

The brand-new Tower Site Calendar 2010 will
soon be back from the printer and ready for shipment, complete
with more than a dozen full-color images of sites from Deer Point
in Boise to KYPA in Los Angeles to Mount Mansfield in Vermont.

If you order now, you can be one of just
50 lucky recipients of our individually-numbered, hand-signed
limited first edition - and of course your purchase of the calendar
helps support the continued production of NERW and Tower Site
of the Week.

And we still have a very small quantity
of earlier calendars available, too, if you missed some...

*We've been following the meanderings of
translator W236BX (95.1 Gloucester) as it makes its way west
from Cape Ann to the Fitchburg area to become an FM relay for
WPKZ (1280, ex-WEIM) - and this week we have another move to
report: the translator (still licensed to seller Radio Assist
Ministry) has filed for, and been granted, a construction permit
to move to a site just west of I-93 and just south of Windham,
NEW HAMPSHIRE. We're guessing there's at least one, and
probably two, intermediate hops in W236BX's future before it
lands in or near Fitchburg sometime this fall...

Up in Hanover, long-silent WDCR (1340) was back on the air
for a few hours last week, as Dartmouth College fired up the
AM signal to keep the license alive while it figures out what
to do with the station, last heard full-time back in August 2008.

*There's a slight power increase for a signal-challenged
eastern MASSACHUSETTS FM: Entercom's WKAF (97.7 Brockton)
will go from 1700 watts to 2050 watts from its site on Blue Hill,
567 feet above average terrain.

Calvary Chapel of the Berkshires now has calls for its new
signal on 91.7 in Dalton: it will be WJNF whenever it signs on.

*There's a new PD at RHODE ISLAND's
country station. Bob Walker comes to Hall's WCTK (98.1 New Bedford
MA) next month both as programmer and as a jock. Walker was last
in Milwaukee at the former WKTI (94.5, now "Lake" WLWK);
he replaces Steve Guitarri in a post that's been empty for over
a year.

*In MAINE, Hearst's WMTW-TV (Channel
8) is hoping to return to the dials of viewers using UHF-only
antennas to receive digital TV - it's applying for a digital
replacement translator in Portland on channel 26 (the old analog
home of MPBN's WMEA-TV). The new translator would run 6.2 kW
from atop the time-and-temperature sign above WMTW's studio building
in downtown Portland. WMTW tells the FCC that it's still receiving
reports from viewers unable to receive its channel 8 signal on
indoor antennas, and it says many of those viewers, especially
in urban Portland, are in situations where they can't install
outdoor antennas.

Another of the Knights of Columbus' new FM stations has calls:
mark down "WFGP" for 91.1 in Greene, north of Lewiston.

And
a quick note to radio and TV engineers in the region: Larry Bloomfield's
very useful "Taste of NAB Road Show" is making its
way around the northeast this week and next, including a stop
in the Portland area on Monday, followed by Scranton on Wednesday,
Binghamton on Thursday and Rochester September 1.

*Just one note from CONNECTICUT: current
and former staffers of Brookfield's WINE (940) and WRKI (95.1,
ex-WGHF) are invited to a reunion September 19. Tom Zarecki's
behind the event, and of course there's a Facebook
page full of information and some historic pictures, including
a few that desperately need your help with captions, if you can
identify some of the station old-timers...

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*A
northeastern PENNSYLVANIA AM station is changing hands.
Lex Sloot, the owner of Panorama magazine, is buying WAZL
(1490 Hazleton) from WS2K Media, the investment-firm group that
acquired WAZL and its sister Route 81 stations last year. Sloot
tells the Hazleton Standard-Speaker he intends to make
the AM station even more local, including the addition of a new
morning show; station manager Mike Moran, who's been running
WAZL under an LMA with WS2K for the past year, will stay on with
the new owners.

A correction from last week: it's WMAJ (1450 State College)
that changed calls to WQWK last week when the former WQWK (103.1
State College) became news-talk WRSC-FM. WRSC (1390) continues
to simulcast the Kevin and Pat morning show with WRSC-FM, but
it's now split off for the rest of the day, with the AM carrying
progressive talk. As for 1450, the change from the venerable
WMAJ calls (still heard on FM) did not come with a format change
- it's still running ESPN sports.

In Philadelphia, Marconi Broadcasting's WHAT (1340) has lured
Jim Clark south from Albany to be its new PD. Clark had been
the morning co-host at WFLY (92.3 Troy); at WHAT, he'll oversee
the station's standards programming and host the 10 AM-5 PM shift,
presumably voicetracked for at least part of that shift.

In Pittsburgh, WDUQ (90.5) is looking for a new local host
for "Morning Edition" as Katherine Fink departs after
eight years. She's heading to Columbia University to study for
a doctorate in journalism; her last day was Friday.

In TV news, ABC's WPVI (Channel 6) is getting ready for its
big move - or rather, its very short move, since its new state-of-the-art
studio building is right next door to its 1960s-vintage "studio
in the round" on City Line Avenue and Monument Road. WPVI's
office staff has already made the move to the new building, and
the on-air staff is expected to be in place by September 20.

And we're sorry to note the passing of Christopher Borod,
better known on-air as "Chris Gable" during stints
as air talent at New York's WYNY and Philadelphia's WMGK, as
well as PD at WRKZ in Hershey. Borod had been working off-air
at McKesson Inc. in recent years; he died August 12 at age 56
in Hershey.

*Greater Media is taking another stab
at a power increase on the NEW JERSEY shore: after an
earlier construction permit to increase the height of WRAT (95.9
Point Pleasant)'s tower was cancelled back in 2006, WRAT has
again applied for - and been granted - the height boost. If it's
built, it will take "The Rat" from its present 4 kW/239'
to 1.45 kW/476' from a taller tower at its present site in South
Belmar.

New Jersey's distinctive noncommercial WFMU (91.1 East Orange)
now has a better signal up Manhattan's west side: it's filed
for a license to cover for WFMU-FM1, a 22-watt on-channel booster
with a directional signal aimed north from the 4 Times Square
tower site.

Way down the shore, we note that Rick Brancadora has finally
made the call change on his FM: WILW (94.3 Avalon) is now WIBG-FM.

And we send our best wishes out to "Big Jay" Sorensen,
the veteran jock last heard on WJRZ-FM (100.1 Manahawkin), who's
recovering from emergency surgery over the weekend. The good
news, we're told, is that the recovery is going well, and he's
expected to be out and about - and to "Be Big" - in
no time.

*The last AM station in Sudbury,
Ontario is following the trend in CANADA and moving to
FM. Rogers' CIGM (790) signed off Sunday night at midnight, giving
way to Newcap's CIGM-FM (93.5) as part of a station swap that
traded the Sudbury station for another AM-moving-to-FM in Halifax,
Nova Scotia.

CIGM-FM
began transmitting late last week with a stunt: it's doing "Classic
Chinese Hits" as "Kung Pao 93.5 FM," a faux format
that's been heard several times south of the border, most recently
at what's now WVHT (100.5) in Norfolk, Virginia. The new 93.5
is expected to debut its real format within the next few weeks.

*There's a subtle but significant name change coming to the
chain of Astral Media FMs in Quebec now known as "Energie
FM": CKMF (94.3 Montreal), CKTF (104.1 Gatineau-Ottawa),
CHIK (98.9 Quebec City) and seven sister stations will soon be
known as "NRJ-FM." In French, those letters are pronounced
"Energie," just like the current nickname - but the
change to "NRJ" is part of a licensing deal with France's
NRJ-FM, one of that country's most popular nationwide broadcasters.
This is Astral's second licensing deal with a European broadcaster
- it launched "Virgin Radio" on several of its Anglophone
signals last year.

On TV,
there's a new identity coming to Quebec's "other" commercial
province-wide TV network. In keeping with the recent Canadian
trend toward single-letter network identities ("A"
and "E!" in Anglophone Canada), TQS will become "V,"
apparently as early as next week. The new "V" identity
is supposed to reflect several French words that start with the
letter, including "vitesse" (speed) and "vedettes"
(stars).

The demise of Montreal's Aboriginal Voices Radio station,
CKAV-FM-10 (106.7), is good news for another new station there:
Canadian Hellenic Cable Radio, which had been granted a license
to operate on 106.3 under the condition that it find a new frequency
if that signal caused interference to AVR on 106.7, no longer
has that condition in its license now that CKAV-FM-10 is history.

One more Montreal move: CFQR (Q92.5) morning co-host Aaron
Rand is now a solo act, as the Corus-owned station sends co-hosts
Tasso Patsikakis and Suzanne Desautels packing. "Aaron and
Tasso" had been working together since 1989, and Desautels
had been with them since 1999.

On its second attempt, Groupe Radio Antenne 6 Inc. has been
granted permission to move CFGT (1270 Alma QC) to FM, with 50
kW on 97.7. Antenne 6's first application to move CFGT to FM
was denied due to overlap with sister stations CKYK Alma and
CHRL Roberval, but Antenne 6 is altering CHRL's signal to avoid
that overlap. CFGT is the last AM remaining in the Saguenay market
up north, and one of only a tiny handful of AMs remaining in
the province outside Montreal.

Near Quebec City, CHEQ (101.7 Ste.-Marie-de-Beauce) has been
granted permission to change frequency to 101.5 and to boost
power, from 4.7-kw/79' to 26-kw/214'. While the move will give
CHEQ a fringe signal into the provincial capital, the CRTC says
its real purpose is to improve CHEQ's ability to compete in its
home market against incoming signals from Quebec City.

A small Quebec City FM signal is getting caught in a regulatory
squeeze play: Sortir FM's tourist-information CKJN (90.3) got
the thumbs-down last week from the CRTC in its attempt to move
to 106.9, boosting power from 16 to 100 watts. The CRTC cited
a conflict between the station's own application and the technical
analysis performed by Industry Canada, which used a different
power level - and it says there's a potential problem with interference
to a co-channel station in Trois-Rivieres. In the meantime, though,
CKJN may have to go off the air if it can't get the situation
resolved quickly, since its operation is secondary to a new license
in nearby Montmagny on 90.3.

In Moncton, N.B., Milkman UnLimited reports that Scotty
Horsman, late of CKCW-FM (K94.5) and CJMO (C103), is the new
morning man at CJXL (XL 96.9), where he starts today on "XL
Mornings with Scotty Horsman and Tony Smith."

And in Toronto, it was a quiet end to more than a half-century
of broadcasting from one of the city's most famous radio addresses:
last Monday (August 17), CHUM-FM relocated from 1331 Yonge Street
to its new digs at 250 Richmond Street West. That sets the stage
for the wrecking balls to move in at 1331 Yonge, as the site
is redeveloped with (what else?) high-rise condos...though at
least the iconic CHUM sign has been relocated to the new studios.

Down the street at Corus' CFNY (102.1 the Edge), "Fearless"
Fred Kennedy is the new afternoon jock, moving in from Edmonton
and displacing Dave Bookman to evenings.

SCHEDULE NOTE: We'll be back next Monday, Aug. 31, with the
last of our summer double issues, and then we'll be off for Labor
Day, Sept. 7, before returning for the fall season September
14. See you then!

From
the NERW Archives

(Yup, we've been doing this a long time now, and
so we're digging back into the vaults for a look at what NERW
was covering one, five, ten and - where available - fifteen years
ago this week, or thereabouts. Note that the column appeared
on an erratic schedule in its earliest years as "New England
Radio Watch," and didn't go to a regular weekly schedule
until 1997. Thanks to LARadio.com
for the idea - and thanks to you, our readers, for the support
that's made all these years of NERW possible!)

August 25/Sept. 1, 2008 -

Big news from CANADA - Toronto's CKFM (99.9) ended its stunting
at 4 PM by flipping to "Virgin Radio," as Astral Media
inaugurated a licensing agreement with Virgin that puts the international
brand and a top-40 format on the former "Mix 99.9,"
with Mad Dog and Billie remaining in mornings and the inescapable
Ryan Seacrest later on in the day. Much more on this change next
week.

Last week, NERW broke the story of a major rearrangement
of Atlantic Coast Radio's Portland-market signals, and this week
we can fill in all the blanks - and tell you about some changes
down the road at the Nassau stations, too, not to mention a big
change up in Bangor.

First, Atlantic Coast: As we reported last week, it's the
end of the line for "Red Hot 95.9." That station -
WRED (95.9 Saco) - will become half of a new Atlantic Coast sports
station in the market, as owner J.J. Jeffrey affiliates with
Boston's WEEI and puts its sports programming on 95.9 and on
WJJB-FM (95.5 Topsham), which had been half of the locally-programmed
"Big Jab" sports signal. The Big Jab will stay in the
market on a stronger signal, replacing talk on what's now WLOB-FM
(96.3 Gray) and remaining on WJJB (1440 Westbrook). And the talk
programming will stay in place, too, but only on WLOB (1310 Portland).
Those changes will all take place Sept. 1, and there will be
new calls, too - 96.3 will become WJJB-FM, 95.5 will be WTEI
and 95.9 will be WPEI.

NERW readers with longish memories will by now have noted
that the initial announcement of a New England-wide WEEI network
last winter included numerous Nassau stations, WLVP/WLAM among
them. As WEEI relaunches its regional network plans, Nassau is
still absent - but there is now a Bangor affiliate. September
1 will also bring the WEEI network to Blueberry Broadcasting's
WABI (910 Bangor) and WWBX (97.1 Bangor), replacing talk on the
AM side and top 40 "B97" on the FM. That's a pretty
big signal for WEEI, and even if the WEEI network is being handled
separately from the Red Sox rights, we have to wonder how much
longer Stephen King will be able to hang on to the Sox over at
WZON (620).

And returning to the Portland/southern Maine end of things,
there's a format shuffle coming from Nassau, too: In October,
it will move classical "W-Bach" from its present homes
on WBQW (106.3 Scarborough) and WBQQ (99.3 Kennebunk) to what's
now "Bone" classic rocker WHXQ (104.7 Kennebunkport).
The 106.3 frequency will flip to "The Bone," simulcasting
with WHXR (106.7 North Windham) to blanket the Portland market,
at the expense of York County; 99.3 will flip to "Wolf"
country, simulcasting Nassau's WTHT (99.9 Auburn) to improve
the Wolf's coverage of the full Portland market, where Nassau's
apparently looking at sagging ratings for Saga's country giant,
WPOR (101.9 Portland), and seeing vulnerability. (There are no
changes planned - at least not yet - for the northern outposts
of the "W-Bach" network, WBQX 106.9 Thomaston and WBQI
107.7 Bar Harbor.)

The RHODE ISLAND ratings scandal took another interesting
turn late last week, as news emerged that the six questionable
diaries in the Providence spring Arbitron book were filled out
by Kristen DePetro of East Greenwich, wife of WPRO (630)/WEAN
(99.7) morning talker John DePetro. Going into the weekend, DePetro
and his bosses at Citadel closed ranks, with DePetro saying that
he was unaware of the fraudulent diaries, which reportedly listed
hundreds of hours of WPRO listening by nonexistent listeners
in the prime 25-34 demographic. WPRO management issued a statement
saying they were "profoundly disappointed" in Mrs.
DePetro.

Upstate, we have this update on the move of Finger Lakes
Radio Group's WFLR-FM (95.9 Dundee) to the Ithaca market, as
a class A on 95.5 licensed to Odessa: with Dundee translator
W245BL (96.9) now on the air and simulcasting WFLR-FM, listeners
in the area are being told that "WFLR is moving to 96.9,"
effective Sept. 1. What will actually play out next weekend,
as best we can piece it together, will be WFLR-FM going silent
on 95.9 to make its Odessa move - and 96.9 translating WFLR (1570
Dundee), which will flip from its present news-talk format (as
part of the Finger Lakes News Network) to the country format
now heard on WFLR-FM.

And there's good news and bad news from our friends over
at WCJW (1140 Warsaw). The good? A power increase to 250 watts
on FM translator W279BO (103.7 Warsaw) is giving "CJ Country"
greater reach on FM. We heard it clearly Saturday night while
watching a Muckdogs baseball game in Batavia, as CJ was carrying
a night NASCAR race that it never would have been able to carry
in its entirety as a daytime-only AM facility. The bad news actually
came from WBTA's Muckdogs broadcast, as the announcer noted the
death on Saturday evening of WCJW news director and mid-morning
personality Jenny Snow, who collapsed while doing volunteer work
for the Perry Fire Department. Morning man Steve Weber will be
serving as acting news director, while owner Lloyd Lane will
handle mornings until a replacement for Snow can be hired.

August 23, 2004 -

It was a week of obituaries, and you'll forgive us, we hope,
if we begin our report in NEW YORK and remember one of your editor's
former bosses, Pete Dobrovitz, who died Tuesday (August 17) at
51.

Pete's long career in Rochester TV news began in 1975, when
he graduated from Marquette University and went to work for WROC-TV
(Channel 8). Over the next fifteen years, he hit the "grand
slam" of local TV news, as he'd later put it, working as
well for WOKR (Channel 13), where he launched the station's 5:30
newscast, and for WHEC-TV (Channel 10), where he served as the
station's "Action Team" reporter. Then, in 1990, he
made the big move from broadcast to cable, joining what was then
Greater Rochester Cablevision to create a 10 PM newscast for
cable-only indie "WGRC-TV 5." Pete then built his daily
half-hour into something new called "R News," expanding
it to six hours daily, then 12, then swallowing the rest of the
station (by then "GRC 9") completely to become a 24-hour
local cable news channel in July 1995, something utterly unprecedented
in a market as small as Rochester. (Only New York's New York
1 was doing 24-hour local news sooner.)

And it's largely Pete's fault that you're now reading "NorthEast
Radio Watch" and not "New England Radio Watch,"
for it was his job offer in late 1996 that moved me from Boston's
WBZ to R News. Ironically, Pete was gone from R News just days
after my arrival, the result of a disupte over editorial independence,
a recurring problem in a newsroom owned by a cable company with
no real experience in doing news.

But what he left behind was awfully impressive - the kind
of TV newsroom that reporters and photographers dream of working
at. Pete wasn't big on fancy sets or graphics, he loathed "personality"
promos, but he placed a huge value on quality storytelling, giving
his staff the time and resources they needed to cover their community
deeply and honestly, wuthout ever needing to worry about ratings.
(It says something, especially in a mid-seventies-size market,
that four of the original photog staffers, several reporter/anchors
and a number of producers and crew members who started with WGRC
back in 1990 are still there almost 15 years later; others have
moved on to bigger things everywhere from Schenectady to Louisville
to Cleveland to Minneapolis to Denver to North Carolina's public
TV network.)

Another obituary this week comes from Buffalo, where Warren
P. Smith, Jr., known to viewers and listeners as "Clip,"
was killed Saturday (8/21) in a car crash in Niagara County.
Smith began his broadcast career in the sixties at WUSJ (now
WLVL) in Lockport, then went to Buffalo's WKBW-TV (Channel 7),
where he did sports from 1971 until 1988. From there he returned
to radio, working at WGR (550) for a decade and then at WBEN
(930) until his job was eliminated in a cost-cutting move in
2002. Smith was also active in politics, running for mayor of
Lockport and serving on both the city council and the school
board there. Clip Smith was 63.

A veteran of the NEW HAMPSHIRE broadcast scene has died.
Maury Parent was closely associated with both of Nashua's AM
stations over the years, first at WOTW (900/106.3), then moving
over to WSMN (1590) when WOTW went dark in the eighties, then
returning to the revived AM 900 under its later incarnations
as WMVU, WOTW and WSNH. (Most recently, he was hosting the morning
show on WSMN.) Parent served as GM of both stations at one time
or another, but was probably best known for his weekend show
that served the area's large Francophone population. (It's heard
on WSNH.) He was on his way to a remote Thursday when he suffered
a heart attack and died behind the wheel; he was 72.

A PENNSYLVANIA radio station owner will go to trial on charges
that he molested a young boy. A judge upheld all of the 19 counts
against Doug Lane, owner of WWDL (104.9 Scranton)/WICK (1400
Scranton)/WYCK (1340 Plains), last week. Lane is free on bail
while his case is being heard.

Over on the other end of the state, Corry Broadcasting's
WEYZ (1530 North East) is changing hands. It's now WYNE, and
it's simulcasting Mercyhurst College fine arts outlet WMCE (88.5
Erie) - though former sister station WWCB (1370 Corry) continues
to ID "WEYZ North East" at the top of the hour, too!

August 27, 1999 -

We begin this week's news up in MAINE, where J.J. Jeffrey's
new Atlantic Coast Communications has made another purchase.
As expected, Jeffrey is adding WXGL (95.5 Topsham) to the group
that already includes WRED (95.9 Saco), WJAE (1440 Westbrook-Portland),
and WJJB (900 Brunswick). Will the $1.3 million purchase put
WXGL in a simulcast with WRED? Or will some creative engineering
with the two second-adjacents create a new full-market Portland
signal? We'll be watching...

Up the coast, some sad news to report from Rockland, where
WMCM/WRKD owner Peter Orne Sr. died this week in the crash of
the private plane he was piloting. Orne grew up in Rockland,
attended Bowdoin College, and went into TV sales and management,
eventually ending up at WTNH in New Haven, then as general manager
of WVII in Bangor, a post he left to go into radio ownership
(at one time including WABI/WWBX Bangor in addition to the Rockland
stations). Orne's son, Peter Jr., takes over management of WMCM/WRCD.
Peter Orne Sr. was 64. A memorial service will be held Saturday.

Across the border in NEW HAMPSHIRE, there's one station sale
to report and another possibly on the way, as Tele-Media moves
into the Granite State by buying Clark Smidt's oldies WNNH (99.1
Henniker) in the Concord market. Smidt stays on with the new
owners as "director of procurement for New England."
Tele-Media (which northeast listeners know from the Albany WABY/WCPT/WKLI
group) is reportedly looking at Nashua's WHOB as its next acquisition
-- but we've heard that station mentioned in enough rumors to
stock an entire issue of Inside Radio!

Don Imus switched MASSACHUSETTS affiliates on schedule Monday,
with WSJZ (96.9 Boston) taking over from WEEI (850) (and from
Worcester's WWTM, which also loses the I-man). Departing WSJZ
PD Shirley Maldonado sent out an e-mail farewell to the station's
mailing list this week, mentioning the Web as the only local
source for smooth jazz all day (with sister station WMJX offering
a few hours on Sunday mornings).

Up in Middletown (well, "down" in Middletown from
our perspective, actually), Crystal Communications is making
some big changes at WALL (1340), as the station's local programming
gives way to a relay of WEOK (1390) in Poughkeepsie. Morning
host John Moultrie was to have remained on WALL until next Friday
(9/3), but after he voiced his opinions on the changes a bit
too loudly, the plug was pulled a bit early. Also leaving is
polka guy Jimmy Sturr, who returns to nearby WTBQ (1110 Warwick).
Speaking of WTBQ, which we really should do more often, Dale
Anderson is departing as news director to go home to New Jersey.
OM Chris Cordani will fill in for now. And former morning guy
Rob McLean rejoins the station as evening jock.

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